“Drive My Car,” a film based on a short story by Haruki Murakami and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, has garnered a long list of prizes since premiering last July at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won three awards, including best screenplay.
It was also named best picture by the National Society of Film Critics in the United States, as well as by critics’ associations in Los Angeles and New York. Most recently, it took the 2022 Golden Globe for best picture in the non-English language category, though that achievement may have been tarnished after the reputation of those awards, which are bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, took a severe hit as stars and media companies withdrew their support for them over criticism about the HFPA’s lack of diversity.
Nonetheless, the Globes have long been a traditional, though not terribly accurate, indicator of which films walk away with Oscars at the annual Academy Awards ceremony, including the one for best international feature. The last Japanese film to win in this category, Yojiro Takita’s “Departures” in 2009, was not a Golden Globe recipient.